Laying it on the Line
by Dukes126plus
Summary: Sometimes Bo thinks that he’s the only reason the two of them are still here in Uncle Jesse’s house: staying together for the sake of the child. From Goodbye General Lee. /Warnings: suggestions of slash, incest - but it's more of a love story./


From _Goodbye General Lee,_ in which Bo learns a lesson (that the producers, interestingly, did not) about the value of the car vs. the value of who's inside the car.

* * *

Neither him nor Luke has ever been pregnant (nor, to his real knowledge, ever gotten a girl in the family way) but all of Hazzard would agree that they both gave birth to their only child, the General Lee. Sometimes Bo thinks that he's the only reason the two of them are still here in Uncle Jesse's house: staying together for the sake of the child. Because he doesn't doubt for a second that if Luke really wanted to leave Hazzard – and sometimes it seems like he probably does – he'd find his way right around that probation that supposedly keeps them here.

When the bomb gets dropped, Jesse, Cooter and Daisy really think it's all about the car, that Luke doesn't respect the steel, plastic and rubber anymore. Bo knows it's much worse than that; Luke has stopped loving their child and their childhood. He's stopped loving Bo. The General Lee will be gone tomorrow and Luke the day after. And here he is shooting arrows at a target in some kind of a lame attempt to save it all.

Jesse doesn't want them to fight. How do you break up a family without fighting? But it's Jesse's roof over their heads, and maybe the closest thing to a grandchild that Jesse will ever have that's about to be lost. So if it means that much to the old man, Bo will find a way to go into that bedroom tonight and keep a civil tongue. Even if it turns out that Luke's in there packing a suitcase.

Which fortunately doesn't seem to be the case. One more day of reprieve while they fix up the General well enough to unload him, one more day that Luke will pretend that he's not going anywhere further than the used car lot.

It doesn't get any easier after they trade the General in on the yellow car, and Luke says he wants to paint it orange and give it the General's name. So Luke's planning to stay in Hazzard after all, but how long will it be before he finds someone besides Bo to chauffeur him around? Shoot maybe it'll be Cooter and Luke'll be suggesting a nice brand of bleach that the man can use on his hair.

Damn it, this is the problem with the Duke boys. Everything is based on assumption, that they will both want the same things forever, and then Luke has to go proving him wrong by not wanting the General anymore, by going out and replacing him.

One more night spent waiting for Luke to pack up and move out, even if it's only to town and into Cooter's garage. One more morning of waking up with Luke still there, acting like the General's nothing more than a means of transportation. Damn it, he should have gotten things straight with Luke long ago instead of just letting them hover somewhere just short of what they really are. It's been years now that Bo has feared Luke's rejection, and here it is. If he knew it was coming anyway, he might as well have put some facts on the line.

Alone in the old cabin at the still site, talking about Rosco and avoiding arrest instead of what really matters. Bo keeps making up his mind to just say things straight, and then remembering that Jesse doesn't want them to fight. He has no idea how to keep Luke or let him go, either one, without coming to blows. He's still trying to work that out when Jesse shows up, scolding them about the mess they've gotten themselves into.

Luke puts one last dagger in his heart, talking about how he never wanted to see the General hurt, only wanted him to retire peacefully. Does he really think that letting go of someone is that easy? Just put them out to pasture and never look back? Hope they go peacefully, without a fight—

He doesn't care what Jesse wants, not anymore. This has got to come to blows. He's going to make sure it happens, right here and now… when Luke's story changes.

"Who ever said I wanted to get rid of the General?"

_Yeah, nice cover, Luke Duke. You've been out there cheating with that yellow hooker over there and you want to act all innocent now—_

Except it's not an act. It takes a few seconds for Bo to realize that, but Luke's never really been able to pull the wool completely over his eyes (or Jesse's for that matter, and the old man believes him) without guilt showing back there behind the startling blue of his irises. Little twitches at the corners, little flicks of pupils from here to there, always give him away. Luke's not doing either right now, he's staring hard and demanding answers.

It doesn't calm Bo down, seeing Luke flip-flop like this. If the man can want to be rid of their child one day and want him back the next, what kind of future does that promise? One where Luke chooses and discards things at will, while Bo tries to hold steady on the idea that Luke will come back once he gets tired of the next big thing?

Bo keeps that anger seething as they speed off in an attempt to rescue the car that Luke so casually disposed of. Hated it yesterday and today he wants it back. The second they get out of this mess, he's going to make sure Luke feels that rage, feel it upside his head and in his nose and deep inside his gut.

Pounding on Boss's borrowed drivers, once they catch them, is only fueling his fire. Soon as they knock these two cold he's going to—

It all stops, freezes like in one of them cowboy movies. His anger is stuck, arrested in three seconds ago, a place he can't ever get back to. There's a clear line that he crossed over when he wasn't looking, between then and now. Then it was all about fighting to keep Luke in his life. Now, quick as turning on a bedside light, it's switched over to keeping Luke alive.

"Luke!" he hollers. _Don't save the General. Run the other way, get your head down, duck and cover…_ his damned tongue is too slow. He doesn't get a chance to say any of it before Luke's holding more live dynamite in his hand than either of them has ever thought to mess with before. All Bo can do is watch his idiot of a cousin hold it up and then throw it as far as he can.

He's at Luke's side in seconds, counting his fingers (still ten) and scolding him at the same time. Luke's got no excuses or explanations for this, any more than he did for getting rid of the General.

And it doesn't matter anymore. If Luke wants the General gone, the car can go over a cliff and Bo won't say a word. And if Hazzard's lost its charms, and Luke wants to light out for China, it'll be with Bo's blessing. As long as Luke's alive, nothing else matters.

Which makes learning that Luke was hypnotized into getting rid of the General anticlimactic. It should matter, should make him happy and give him relief that Luke never wanted to give their only child away. But there's no room for any more relief or happiness in Bo's heart, not after the way he could have lost Luke forever, and didn't.

Luke asks if he wants to go out to celebrate their Drag'n'Fly win, and gets surprised by the suggestion that they take a couple of beers out to Pringle's Pond and just watch the fireflies. Not a typical Bo Duke request, maybe, but it's probably a more fitting celebration for the parents of a teenaged car than a wild night at the Boar's Nest would be.

Quiet evening, save for the bullfrogs discussing jugs of rum; no one to watch them except the sleepy birds bedding down for the night, when Bo finally lays it all on the line for Luke. The man has held dynamite in his hands today, and come out the other side alive. How afraid can Bo be to tell him the truth?


End file.
